What Is WebTrends Live?

by Melissa King

With the WebTrends Live service, website owners have the ability to track visitors' browsing habits, purchases and activity. WebTrends Live itself is not malicious, but it does install tracking cookies on a website user's computer. For business owners, WebTrends Live is a helpful analytical tool. If tracking cookies bother you, however, you can block WebTrends Live.

Tracking Cookie Basics

When you visit a website, that site may install cookies on your computer. Not all cookies track your activity. Some store your log-in information so you do not need to enter it again when you next visit the site. Other cookies save your preferences and settings. Many websites, especially ones that sell products or services, install tracking cookies on your computer. Tracking cookies do things such as monitor your searches and browsing habits on the website. Businesses use this data in a number of ways, including displaying targeted information to you.

WebTrends Live Features

Tracking cookies help website owners learn important information about their visitors and customers. WebTrends Live provides updated site data every few minutes, allowing site owners to track user activity trends throughout the day. WebTrends Live has the ability to generate reports on dynamic pages, individual products and shopping card trends. The service lets users export recorded data to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel or Adobe Acrobat. Small businesses benefit from the free WebTrends Live Personal Edition. The Personal Edition offers only basic tracking and recording tools. For larger businesses, the Enterprise Edition provides features including report filtering and ad campaign tracking.

How WebTrends Live Tracks Site Visitors

Many website analysis tools work by gathering data from log files and then arranging it into a useful report. WebTrends Live, however, installs JavaScript on each page of a website. Users install the JavaScript code on all the pages they want to track. When someone visits a website, the code tracks the person's actions and sends the data to a remote database.

Block WebTrends Live

To a website visitor or customer, tracking cookies sometimes seem like an invasion of privacy. Most browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer, offer security features that let users automatically block services like WebTrends Live. Update your browser to its latest version to take advantage of these security tools. All the major browsers also provide a "private browsing" option that deletes all cookies on a computer after the browser closes.

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About the Author

Melissa King began writing in 2001. She spent three years writing for her local newspaper, "The Colt," writing editorials, news stories, product reviews and entertainment pieces. She is also the owner and operator of Howbert Freelance Writing. King holds an Associate of Arts in communications from Tarrant County College.